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Dosage Administration Aids |
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What is this program about?
The aim of the DAA Program is to reduce medication-related hospitalisation and adverse events through improving medication management and adherence for people in the community, including those on multiple medications, or who are confused.
What will my role be?
Pharmacists participating in the program will be assisted to provide DAAs to a minimum number of patients who would benefit from the provision of a DAA.
What is a Dose Administration Aid?
A DAA is an adherence device developed to assist medication management for a patient by having the medications divided into individual doses and arranged according to the dose schedule throughout the day. It can be either a unit-dose pack (one single type of medication per compartment) or a multi-dose pack (different types of medication per compartment).
The DAA devices that will be subsidised under this program will need to have tamper proof packaging, protect against contamination (eg disposable) and include drug and patient identification for individual compartments. Devices such as “dosettes” that cannot be sealed or that do not have compartmentalised identification will not be covered by the program.
The subsidised supply of DAAs to community patients will be limited to a conventional 7 day supply pack to promote interaction between the pharmacist and the patient and allow the pharmacist to monitor and assist the patient’s medication management. Situations requiring supply for periods of longer than 7 days will be at the pharmacist’s professional discretion and are expected to be the exception, rather than the rule.
Which patients are eligible for this service?
During the transition period patients will be eligible to participate in the program if they have an identified need for a DAA and: - are not in an aged care home, correctional facility or hospital;
- have consented to the use of a DAA;
- have consented that de-identified patient information may be collected to inform the evaluation of the program; and
- have a valid Medicare or Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) card.
During the transition period, pharmacists will liaise with patients, carers and other health professionals and use their professional judgement to determine a patient’s need for a DAA.
Program data gathered during the transition period will inform the revision of the patient eligibility criteria for the second stage of the program, to ensure the most appropriate patients are targeted for this service. Data will also be used for program evaluation purposes.
Will patients be charged for the service?
During the transition period, any patient service fee charged for DAAs provided under the program will be determined by, and is at the discretion of, the pharmacy. Pharmacies already providing DAAs, therefore, can continue current fee practices if desired.
Different service fee arrangements may apply for the second stage of the program.
Pharmacies will need to inform patients that the charge is imposed as a condition of participating in the pilot and not imposed by the Australian Government. Patient charges are not co-payments and therefore will not count towards the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) Safety Net.
A patient’s willingness to pay for DAA services, and the nature and extent of fees charged, will be an important part of the program evaluation.
What about patient privacy?
Pharmacists will be expected to comply with current Pharmaceutical Society of Australia’s professional practice standards that require that the consumer’s right to privacy is to be observed at all times.
Pharmacies participating in the program will be randomly audited to ensure that these requirements are met.
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